Intent engines, systems and method

ABSTRACT

A system and method to accurately modify the function of a user&#39;s electronic device in response to the multiple aspects making up a user&#39;s evolving state of mind are presented. Persistent intent objects are generated to represent a user&#39;s state of mind and the relative importance of a particular state of mind to a user&#39;s instant attention. The intent objects can be related to situations or environments and could exist beyond any specific situations or environments. The collective effect of the intent objects can be used to customize the functions of a user device to match the user&#39;s state of mind extending beyond inferences drawn from an individual or instant set of circumstances.

This application claims priority to U.S. Provisional Application No.61/896,454 filed Oct. 28, 2013. U.S. Provisional Application No.61/896,454 is incorporated by reference in its entirety.

FIELD OF THE INVENTION

The field of the invention is adjusting the functionality of a user'sdevice based an assessment of a user's state of mind.

BACKGROUND

The background description includes information that may be useful inunderstanding the present invention. It is not an admission that any ofthe information provided herein is prior art or relevant to thepresently claimed invention, or that any publication specifically orimplicitly referenced is prior art.

The evolution of portable computing and communication technologies hasenabled users to access information nearly anywhere, almost instantly.Versatile, data-enabled smart phones or other portable computing deviceshave become increasingly common. This has in turn triggered thedevelopment of services accessible through the portable devices designedto assist a user in a variety of situations that the user mightencounter. Often times, these services attempt to predict what a userwants or needs in a given situation to provide the relevant service inthe fastest, most relevant, most customized way possible. Unfortunately,these predictions of a user's intent are based only on information thatis related to the service being delivered. Additionally, the predictionsthemselves are limited, and are typically only useful for specificpurposes, events, queries, situations or desired outcomes. As such, thepredictions often fail to accurately account for all of the factors thatcan influence a person's intent, and fail to represent a person'smindset at a particular point in time and, as a result, ultimately failto accurately predict what a particular user really wants or needs.Further such predications fail to address a persistent nature of intent.

Others have put forth effort toward developing systems and methods fordetermining intent at minor levels.

For example, U.S. patent application 2010/0205180 A1 to Cooper, et al(“Cooper”) titled “Method and Apparatus for Identifying and ClassifyingQuery Intent,” published Aug. 10, 2010, discusses an intent managementtool for identifying intent categories used in searching. The intentcategories are then used with specific one-time search queries togenerate search query results. Cooper does not discuss having apersistent, adaptable intent object representing a user's intent beyonda single query or result.

U.S. patent application 2013/0006777 A1 to Krishnareddy, et al(“Krishnareddy”) titled “Determination and Monetization of FutureLocation,” published Jan. 3, 2013, discusses calculating a probabilitythat a user will be at a particular location based on past and currentlocations or user-indicated future locations and charging advertisingcosts based on the probabilities. Krishnareddy does not discusslocation-independent intent or a user's intent temporally extendedbeyond events or locations.

U.S. patent application 2011/0098029 A1 to Rhoads, et al (“Rhoads”)titled “Sensor-Based Mobile Search, Related Methods and Systems,”published Apr. 28, 2011, discusses using the sensor data gathered by adevice and a person's past actions to predict a person's current intent.The intent discussed in Rhoads is calculated only at a time it isnecessary to obtain a result related to the predicted intent. Rhoadsdoes not discuss persistent intent objects, existing beyond a particularsituation or purpose, or an intent object calculated based on situationsthat are not related to a purpose or outcome. Rhoads also fails todiscuss having intent objects affect other intent objects.

U.S. patent application 2006/0064411 A1 to Gross, et al (“Gross”) titled“Search Engine Using User Intent,” published Mar. 23, 2006, discussesinferring the intent of a user based on prior search behavior. In Gross,the intent is used to properly respond to a user's search query. Grossfurther discusses that the past user information used to help determineintent is information directly related to the submitted query. Grossdoes not discuss a persistent intent object lasting beyond, or intentobjects that can arise, exist or be used beyond and outside of a goal orpurpose. Gross also fails to discuss intent objects that can interactwith other intent objects.

These prior attempts also use immediate factors in determining context,and thereby determining intent as a predictor. None of the priorattempts allow for the adjustment based on unrelated or unavailablefactors, or for an inter-relationship of a plurality of persistentintent objects that can influence the determination of an instantintent.

All publications herein are incorporated by reference to the same extentas if each individual publication or patent application werespecifically and individually indicated to be incorporated by reference.Where a definition or use of a term in an incorporated reference isinconsistent or contrary to the definition of that term provided herein,the definition of that term provided herein applies and the definitionof that term in the reference does not apply.

In some embodiments, the numbers expressing quantities of ingredients,properties such as concentration, reaction conditions, and so forth,used to describe and claim certain embodiments of the invention are tobe understood as being modified in some instances by the term “about.”Accordingly, in some embodiments, the numerical parameters set forth inthe written description and attached claims are approximations that canvary depending upon the desired properties sought to be obtained by aparticular embodiment. In some embodiments, the numerical parametersshould be construed in light of the number of reported significantdigits and by applying ordinary rounding techniques. Notwithstandingthat the numerical ranges and parameters setting forth the broad scopeof some embodiments of the invention are approximations, the numericalvalues set forth in the specific examples are reported as precisely aspracticable. The numerical values presented in some embodiments of theinvention may contain certain errors necessarily resulting from thestandard deviation found in their respective testing measurements.

As used in the description herein and throughout the claims that follow,the meaning of “a,” “an,” and “the” includes plural reference unless thecontext clearly dictates otherwise. Also, as used in the descriptionherein, the meaning of “in” includes “in” and “on” unless the contextclearly dictates otherwise.

The recitation of ranges of values herein is merely intended to serve asa shorthand method of referring individually to each separate valuefalling within the range. Unless otherwise indicated herein, eachindividual value is incorporated into the specification as if it wereindividually recited herein. All methods described herein can beperformed in any suitable order unless otherwise indicated herein orotherwise clearly contradicted by context. The use of any and allexamples, or exemplary language (e.g. “such as”) provided with respectto certain embodiments herein is intended merely to better illuminatethe invention and does not pose a limitation on the scope of theinvention otherwise claimed. No language in the specification should beconstrued as indicating any non-claimed element essential to thepractice of the invention.

Groupings of alternative elements or embodiments of the inventiondisclosed herein are not to be construed as limitations. Each groupmember can be referred to and claimed individually or in any combinationwith other members of the group or other elements found herein. One ormore members of a group can be included in, or deleted from, a group forreasons of convenience and/or patentability. When any such inclusion ordeletion occurs, the specification is herein deemed to contain the groupas modified thus fulfilling the written description of all Markushgroups used in the appended claims.

Thus, there is still a need for systems and method of ascertaining auser's intent in a way that accurately reflects a real person'sconstantly evolving state of mind.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

The inventive subject matter provides apparatus, systems and methods inwhich a user's persistent, evolving intent can be ascertained andrepresented by generating a persistent intent object. The systemincludes at least one non-transitory computer-readable non-transitorymemory (e.g., RAM, flash, ROM, hard drive, solid state drive, etc.), atleast one processor coupled with that memory, and at least communicationinterface configured to communicatively couple components within thesystem with each other and with other devices, systems etc.

The system's non-transitory computer-readable memory can storeinstructions that, when executed by one or more processors within thesystem, carry out the functions of the invention. The non-transitorycomputer-readable memory can also store data related to the functions ofthe invention. This data can be stored in the form of data entries(e.g., records, objects, etc.) in corresponding databases.

The system can comprise an intent management engine that can create andmodify intent objects related to a user. The intent objects canrepresent a user's state of mind. As a user's state of mind can change,evolve, affect a user's interpretation and perspective of theirexperiences and environment, and affect the user's decision-making, socan an intent object evolve to account for these changes and evolutions.

An intent object can be created and modified independent of events,environments or situations, or the context attributed to those events,environments or situations.

An intent object can be created and modified based on particular events,environments or situations, or the context attributed to events,environments or situations.

An intent object can affect or modify the context attributed to events,environments or situations. The intent object can affect or modify thecriteria used to relate context to intent and vice-versa.

An intent object can be goal-oriented or non-goal oriented. A non-goaloriented intent object can be used to simply represent a current stateof mind, not influenced or directed by any indication or probability ofa user's specific future actions or future possible events, environmentsor situations. Non-goal oriented intent objects can still represent astate of mind that can have an influence on actions generally, such as auser's general behavior or a preponderance to make general decisions ina particular way.

The use of persistent intent objects allows for the incorporation offactors not immediately available or otherwise unrelated to an immediatesituation, event or environment in predicting user behavior.

The system can also comprise an engine, such as the intent managementengine or a separate engine, that can create and modify thought objectsrelated to a user. The thought objects can represent a product a user'smental process. As a person's thoughts about a particular stimulus,object, topic, subject, etc. changes, so can the thought object evolveto reflect these changes.

Thought objects can have associations with other thought objects,representing links between thoughts in a person's mind and can be usedto establish communication links between different people viaassociations of the thought objects of different people.

Thought objects corresponding to multiple people can be used toestablish social networks around the subject of the thought object,between those people.

Thought objects about a particular subject (e.g., a particularreal-world object) can be collected over time and used to give rise toan independent thought object of the subject itself.

The system can be configured to use a combination of thought objects andintent objects, such as to represent the totality of a person'spersonality and consciousness.

Various objects, features, aspects and advantages of the inventivesubject matter will become more apparent from the following detaileddescription of preferred embodiments, along with the accompanyingdrawing figures in which like numerals represent like components.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

FIG. 1 is an overview of a sample implementation of a method to carryout the inventive subject matter.

FIG. 2 is an example of an intent object used to carry out aspects ofthe inventive subject matter.

FIG. 3 illustrates a sample relationship between a user's multipleintent objects in a hierarchical relationship.

FIG. 4 illustrates a sample relationship between a user's multipleintent objects and thought objects.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION

Throughout the following discussion, numerous references will be maderegarding servers, services, interfaces, engines, modules, clients,peers, portals, platforms, or other systems formed from computingdevices. It should be appreciated that the use of such terms is deemedto represent one or more computing devices having at least one processor(e.g., ASIC, FPGA, DSP, x86, ARM, ColdFire, GPU, multi-core processors,etc.) configured to execute software instructions stored on a computerreadable tangible, non-transitory medium (e.g., hard drive, solid statedrive, RAM, flash, ROM, etc.). For example, a server can include one ormore computers operating as a web server, database server, or other typeof computer server in a manner to fulfill described roles,responsibilities, or functions. One should further appreciate thedisclosed computer-based algorithms, processes, methods, or other typesof instruction sets can be embodied as a computer program productcomprising a non-transitory, tangible computer readable media storingthe instructions that cause a processor to execute the disclosed steps.The various servers, systems, databases, or interfaces can exchange datausing standardized protocols or algorithms, possibly based on HTTP,HTTPS, AES, public-private key exchanges, web service APIs, knownfinancial transaction protocols, or other electronic informationexchanging methods. Data exchanges can be conducted over apacket-switched network, the Internet, LAN, WAN, VPN, or other type ofpacket switched network.

One should appreciate that the disclosed techniques provide manyadvantageous technical effects including reducing the load on individualcomputing elements and the collective network by eliminating the need toconstantly re-calculate or recreate every possible representation of auser's state of mind in order to adequately respond to the user's stateof mind.

The following discussion provides many example embodiments of theinventive subject matter. Although each embodiment represents a singlecombination of inventive elements, the inventive subject matter isconsidered to include all possible combinations of the disclosedelements. Thus if one embodiment comprises elements A, B, and C, and asecond embodiment comprises elements B and D, then the inventive subjectmatter is also considered to include other remaining combinations of A,B, C, or D, even if not explicitly disclosed.

The focus of the disclosed inventive subject matter is to enableconstruction of or configuration of a computing device to operate onvast quantities of digital data, beyond the capabilities of a human.Although the digital data represents a consumer's or other user's intentit should be appreciated that the digital data is a representation ofone or more digital models of intent, not that actual intent itself. Byinstantiation of such digital models or digital objects in the memory ofthe computing devices, the computing devices are able to manage thedigital data or models in a manner that could provide utility to a userof the computing device that the user would lack without such a tool.

A user can interact with the system of the invention via an electronicdevice, and the electronic device can be a computing device. Examples ofcomputing devices can include a desktop computer, a laptop computer, acellular telephone, phablets, a PDA, a tablet, a personal music player,a video game console, or any other device having hardware capable ofprocessing instructions. The computing device can include a storagememory (e.g., a hard drive, a solid-state drive, RAM, ROM, flash, etc.)communicatively coupled to one or more processors. The storage memorycan store instructions and data used by the processor to execute aspectsof the inventive subject matter.

The computing device can include sensors capable of sensing one or moreaspects of the device's environment. The computing device can furtherinclude hardware that enables the sensor to provide data associated withthe sensed environment to hardware or software modules for use inprocessing functions.

Sensors can include a camera, a microphone, a thermometer, a globalpositioning system (GPS) sensor, a mechanical sensor, a chemical sensor,a biometric sensor, a hall effect sensor, an accelerometer, a pressuresensor, a compass, a magnetometer, a gas sensor, a speed sensor, abreathalyzer, an electrochemical sensor, EKG, EEG, a touch display, anoptical sensor, a proximity sensor, a vibration sensor, a piezoelectricsensor, a capacitive sensor, a resistive sensor, a current sensor, amagnetometer, a voltage sensor, a liquid sensor, a weight sensor, orother sensors. In some embodiments sensors can be external to thecomputing device where the external sensor's data can be accessed over asensor interface (e.g., serial interface, wireless interface, etc.).

The computing device can include input interfaces that allow for a userto interact with the system by inputting data. Input interfaces caninclude a touch screen, a keyboard, a controller, a joystick, a trackball, a mouse, a light pen, a graphic tablet, a barcode reader, agamepad, a paddle, an electronic white board, a midi instrument, a videocapture device, a remote, a wand, a stylus, a glove, a motion detector,a scanner, or other input interfaces.

The device can include output interfaces that can provide informationback to a user. Output interfaces can include display screens, speakers,sensory feedback mechanisms, tactile output, or other outputs.

The computing device can include one or more communication interfacesthat enable the device to exchange data with other computing devices.The communication interfaces can include wired or wireless interfacesand short range or long range interfaces. Wired interfaces can includeinterfaces such as Ethernet, USB, HDMI, RS-232, or even proprietaryinterfaces. Wireless interfaces can include interfaces such as WiGIG,wireless USB, UWB, Wi-Fi, cellular Bluetooth®, Zigbee®, IrDA, or otherwireless interfaces.

FIG. 1 provides an example of a data flow outlining how environmentalinteraction give rise to intent objects that can dictate functionalityof a user's device. The following discussion relates to intent objects,which can be considered a digital representation or digital model of aperson's intent with respect to an environment or circumstances asdetermined from interaction attributes. Intent objects are data objectsinstantiated with attributes or rules that govern the behavior of theintent objects with respect to each other or the user's device. Withinthe scope of following discussion, an intent object embodies a “purpose”associated with the user's interactions. The purpose of a user'sinteractions should not be confused with a goal although a goal couldcontribute to the purpose. Such intent objects can be instantiated fromclasses having data members that are populated upon instantiation, viasensor data, or other techniques.

For further clarity with respect to intent, consider an example where aperson is shopping for a gift. The goal of the activity is to purchase agift, perhaps a specific kind of gift. However, the intent of the personcould be very different from the goal. Perhaps the intent of the personis to make a child happy on their birthday. Alternatively, the intent ofthe person might relate to being funny or sarcastic by purchasing a jokegift. Each of these intents can be modeled or represented by intentobjects 105.

As illustrated in FIG. 1, an intent management engine 102 obtains anenvironmental interaction representation 103 from a source 101 at step110. The environmental interaction representation 103 can be consideredto be data associated with or related to one or more aspects of theenvironment of a user's electronic device.

The environmental interaction representation 103 can be generated bysource 101. The source 101 can be a sensor internal or external to auser's electronic device, an input interface available to the user or acombination of a sensor and an input interface, wherein theenvironmental interaction representation 103 can include a combinationof data from both types of sources 101.

For a sensor functioning as a source 101, the environmental interactionrepresentation 103 can be a collection sensor data representing acondition or aspect of the environment detected by the sensor. In thecamera example, the environmental interaction representation 103 can beimage data or video data representing an aspect of the environmentvisible to the camera. In other examples, environmental interactionrepresentation 103 can include one or more of position data (from a GPSor other position sensor), movement data (e.g., accelerometer data,motion sensor data, data extrapolated from position data, etc.),temperature data (from a temperature sensor), ambient light data,pressure data (from a pressure sensor), user physiological data (e.g.,heartbeat data, blood pressure data, body temperature data,blood-alcohol level data, glucose level data, and other data fromsuitable biometric sensors), sound data (e.g., detected sounds ornoises, volume of ambient noise, etc. as detected via a microphone orother audio sensor), olfactometer data, etc.

For an input interface as a source 101, the environmental interactionrepresentation 103 can be information obtained via the input interface.The environmental interaction representation 103 can be an instantinput, such as the inputs to a mobile phone at the current location of auser. The environmental interaction representation 103 can also includepast inputs, such as prior searching activity on a search engine, priorcalendar entries on a calendar program, prior meetings or eventsscheduled via a scheduling program, prior activity on an internetbrowser, prior messages (e.g., email, text, etc.) sent to or receivedfrom others, prior activity on a social networking site, prior userpreferences corresponding to one or more devices or services the usercurrently uses or has used in the past, etc.

The environmental interaction representation 103 can include metadataabout the source 101. The metadata can be information about the source101 such as configuration or system information about the source 101. Ifa source 101 is a camera on a smart phone, for example, the metadata caninclude information about the camera itself such as resolution, zoomlevel, and also information about the smart phone such as processing andmemory capacity, available user input or output interfaces, availablecommunication interfaces, etc. Additional examples of metadata includinguser identification, GPS location, context information, proximityinformation, or other information that can be attached to the digitalrepresentation of the environment.

In an illustrative example, a user captures an image inside a shoppingmall with a camera on a smartphone also having a GPS interface, dataexchange capabilities, and a touchscreen input/output. At step 110, theintent management engine 102 obtains the image along with GPS data fromthe phone, as well as the characteristics of the phone itself (or basedon a configuration identifier, the intent management engine 102 canobtain the phone's capabilities from a reference database, including theuser's current settings such as using a hash or other signature from acurrent setting data listing). Also for this example, the user entersthe search term “where to buy video game console” into a search engineon the phone.

At step 111, the intent management engine 102 derives interactionattributes within an interaction space based on the environmentalinteraction representation 103.

The interaction space can be a construct defining the scope of theinteractions available for a particular environment represented by theenvironmental interaction representation 103. In other words, theinteraction space can define the nature of the interactions, and canprovide a boundary as to what the possible available interactions couldtake place. Interactions can be considered generally to be the possiblemodifications or effects to intent objects based on the available inputsand outputs and also the possible output actions on a user's device inresponse to those changes to the intent objects. Thus, the interactionspace can be a data construct bounded by the types of sensors andinterfaces available to the system for input and output functions. Forexample, a mobile device could have a camera, microphone, touchscreeninput, audio output interface (e.g., speakers or headphone-out), GPSnavigation interface, cellular communication capability, fingerprintsensor, accelerometer, sensory feedback interfaces (e.g., a vibrationmechanism), and temperature sensor. Some or all of these input andoutput interfaces can define the current interaction space for thedevice. Where all of these features are active, the interaction space isdefined by all of the features. Thus, available interactions are thosethat can use one or more of these features. In some instances, some ofthese features of the mobile device might not be accessible in aparticular environment (e.g., a phone set to “silent mode”, a mobiledevice in an area having poor or even no cellular coverage or reception,etc.). In these instances, the interaction space includes only thosefeatures that are available. In other words, the interaction space islimited to interactions that do not require or rely on the unavailablefeatures to function. In the “silent mode” example, the interactions canbe limited to those that do not require audio output. In the example ofthe mobile device having poor or no cellular reception, the interactionscan be limited to those requiring little to no data exchange withexternal devices or to those capable of being executed using the dataand resources available to the device locally.

The interaction attributes can be characteristics of the environmentrepresented by the environmental interaction representation 103according to a particular interaction space. They can be thecharacteristics of the environment that are recognizable according tothe particular interaction space. The interaction attributes can includecontextual attributes assigned to the environment according to theinteraction space. The interaction attributes can include a group orrange of possible interactions available in the environment, determinedbased on the environmental interaction representation 103 and theparticular interaction space. Interaction attributes can also be mappingattributes used to determine applicable intent objects 105 for aparticular environment or situation based on the environmentalinteraction representation 103 and the particular interaction space.

Optionally, the intent management engine 102 can receive additionalinformation based on the derived interaction attributes. For example,the additional information can include additional information related tothe user, additional information related to the environment, andadditional information related to the interaction space, associated withthe derived attributes. This information can be obtained from a separatedatabase, and requested by the intent management engine 102 as needed.

Continuing with the shopping mall example, at step 111, the intentmanagement engine 102 performs image recognition on the image data andusing this data and/or the GPS data and determines that the user is atthe shopping mall and where in the shopping mall the user currentlystands. The intent management engine 102 proceeds to retrieve associatedstore listings, including information about the stores in the mall, theproducts that they each sell, themes, etc. Potential interactionsassociated with stores and/or products can include advertisements,notifications of sales, information about products or stores themselves,potential navigation paths among related stores, etc. One of thesestores is an ice-cream store where the user once shared an ice-creamcone with his daughter. These could be presented in various outputmodalities including email presentation, text message, augmented-realityoverlays, video presentation, audio-only presentation, vibration orother sensory alerts for proximity, etc. The content, modalities, andphone capabilities at the instant all having corresponding attributes,the intent management engine 102 derives the interaction attributes byreducing all possible attributes to those within the potentialinteraction space. Thus, if certain information about the mall requiresa microphone and the user has it disabled, the attributes associatedwith that information will not be included in an interaction space.Likewise, any attributes associated with content or device functionsthat have been disabled or are not part of the instant smartphone areremoved from consideration. It should be noted that while attributesassociated with locating a store selling the sought “video game console”entered into the search engine are included, attributes stores orproducts that are not results to the query are not to be excludedautomatically because there can exist more than one intent object 105associated with the shopping mall environment.

After deriving the interaction attributes, the intent management engine102 can modify one or more intent objects 105 stored on an intentdatabase 104 based on these derived attributes at step 112. To modifythe appropriate intent object 105, the intent management engine 102 canmatch the derived interaction attributes with attributes of intentobjects 105. Based on the rules of the intent object 105 correspondingto the derived attributes, the intent management 102 can appropriatelymodify or otherwise use the intent object 105.

The modification of an intent object 105 can include one or more ofinstantiating, removing, deleting, activating, deactivating,classifying, archiving, exporting, forwarding, importing, receiving,tagging, duplicating, selecting, and adding information to the intentobject 105.

In the example of the user at the mall, at step 112 the intentmanagement engine 102 correlates the interaction attributes of theenvironment (the mall and all associated information, device attributes,etc.) to those of an intent object. The intent management engine 102 canfirst identify potential applicable intent objects 105 by searching ormatching the interaction attributes with the attributes of all existingintent objects for the user. In this example, a first matching intentobject 105 is one associated with a user not liking malls in general.However, a second matching intent object is one of a “happy” state ofmind, attributes of which include positive feelings associated with theuser's daughter. These attributes can be linked to a past event wherethe user and the daughter shared an ice-cream cone at a store in thesame mall. Thus the “happy” intent object is retrieved and elevated inimportance because of the interaction attributes associated with the icecream store in the mall.

The modified intent objects 105 can then be used to adjust, configure,influence or otherwise affect the function of an output device at step113. The effect on the function of the output device can include one ormore of a recommendation, an adjustment of the output functions of thedevice, an adjustment in the selection of content to output to thedevice, an adjustment of the permissions associated with functions orapplications of the device, a presentation of content, a modification toan image representation of the user's current environment, apresentation of augmented reality content, a modification to anaugmented reality presentation on the user's device, etc.

In the mall example, the search engine results on the phone give theuser a most direct path to the store to buy the video game console.However, due to the increased importance of the “happy” intent object105, the intent management engine 102 can alter the navigation resultssuch that the user walks past the ice-cream parlor and has a memory ofthe moment with the daughter. Additionally, as the user is passing theice-cream cone, the phone can present, via augmented-reality, a photo ofthe daughter or a suggestion to call her, perhaps to reminisce.

FIG. 2 provides an illustrative example of an intent object 105. Anintent object 105 can be a data object representing a user's state ofmind or an aspect of a user's total state of mind. This state of mindcan be a reflection of user's mood, emotional state, physical state,medical state, or a combination thereof. The state of mind can furtherreflect aspects of a user such as a user's personality, pastexperiences, past environments, and past decisions. An intent object 105is considered to be a persistent, ongoing, evolving data object that canexist beyond the occurrence of individual events or situations, changesin environmental factors, or the completion of goals or objectivesrelated to or dependent on the intent object 105.

The intent object 105 can include attributes 210 that define the intentobject 105. The attributes of an intent object 105 can be considered thefactors or characteristics making up the state of mind represented bythe intent object 105. These attributes 210 can also be links to otherintent objects sharing similar attributes. The attributes 210 can alsocorrespond with interaction attributes of interaction spaces, allowingfor an association of an intent object with an interaction space for aparticular situation, event, environment, or other occurrence.

Examples of attributes 210 of an intent object can include one or moreof a user attribute, a demographic attribute, a goal attribute, aprivacy attribute, a priority attribute, a location attribute, an intentidentifier, rights, contextual maps, conceptual maps, emotional maps, orother attributes that define the nature of intent object 105.

The intent object 105 can also include rules 220 (e.g., class methods,scripts, APIs, etc.) regarding how the intent object 105 and theattributes of an intent object 105 can be modified or otherwise affectedby other intent objects and/or by external occurrences. These rules 220can include weighing or prioritizing of particular attributes, rulesregarding the extent to which an attribute can be modified, expirationrules, rules regarding the creation of derivative intent objects, rulesregarding which intent objects can interact with the intent object 105and rules governing what external occurrences can affect the intentobject 105.

The state of mind represented by an intent object 105 can be the currentuser's state of mind. However, intent objects can be created to reflecta past user state of mind. Likewise, intent objects can be created thatcan project a user's possible future state of mind. The state of mindcould be defined according to an a priori defined ontology or ahierarchical namespace that represent possible known intents or mindstates. The sensor data or interaction attributes can be analyzed withrespect to semantic meaning, which in turn can be mapped to ontologicalintent objects for example.

An intent object 105 can represent the user's “instant” state of mind(i.e., the state of mind currently at the top of the user's instantpriority or attention—“at the front of the user's mind”). An intentobject 105 can also represent a user's state of mind not currently atthe having immediate priority, but that still exists “in the back of theuser's mind”. For example, the intent object may represent a user'sstressed state of mind. However, the stress may be of a lesser immediatemagnitude or intensity than a more immediate feeling of being “hungry”,and thus does not consume a user's immediate attention. Although thisdocument uses the terms “state of mind” to reference intent object 105,one should appreciate that an intent object can be considered to be adigital model or digital representation of a person's current intent asinterpreted from the environmental circumstances and user's interactionswith the environment.

In some embodiments, an intent object 105 can be selected by the user. Auser can select an intent object as a response to a direct questionabout their state of mind. The user can be presented the option toselect a state of mind among a plurality. For example, in response to anevent or situation, the system can ask if the user is happy, angry, sad,hungry, anxious, nervous, etc. (or ask a series of questions whoseanswers can be quantified into a determination of happy, angry, sad,hungry, anxious, nervous, etc.). The system can then apply an intentobject 105 corresponding to the state of mind response from the user.

An intent object 105 can be suggested to the user, with the responseconfirming to the system that the suggested intent object 105 accuratelyreflects the user's state of mind. This approach is consideredadvantageous because the system can then learn to map correlations amonginteraction attributes to intents.

An intent object 105 can be created to represent a user's state of mindresulting from the existence or occurrence of a particular event,situation, environment or circumstance. The state of mind represented bythe intent object 105 can be a state of mind that can (consciously orsubconsciously) affect, predispose, or direct a person's actions towardsa particular objective, result, choice or outcome. The triggeringexistence or occurrence can have existed or occurred in the past, or canbe an existence or occurrence that will occur in the future. Thetriggering criteria that give rise to instantiating intent object 105could also be based on a user's discovery of future events that areanticipated or expected to occur.

An intent object 105 can also represent aspects of or the totality of auser's personality. This type of personality intent object can be along-term intent object, less susceptible to change by individual orshort-term contextual factors or the occurrence of a particular event,situation, environment or circumstance. This type of intent object canalso be used as an input, seed or template for the generation ofderivative, relatively transient intent objects related to more rapidlyevolving or more temporary user states of mind.

An intent object 105 can be of a prescribed duration or have aprescribed lifetime. For example, an intent object 105 can represent aperson's mood for the day. An intent object 105 can have a limitedduration expressed via decay. A particular intent object 105 can have anassociated decay function, where one or more attributes of the intentobject 105 are modified over time according to a decay formula. Forexample, the intent object 105 itself or attributes within the intentobject 105 can be decreased in “value” according to a hierarchy,importance, applicability, or otherwise increasingly limited in functionaccording to the decay function. Eventually, the decay function willcause the intent object 105 to fall in value to near-zero or below adesired threshold, at which point the intent object 105 can be deleted.In modifying an intent object 105, the intent management engine 102 canadjust the expiration time of the intent object. In embodiments, theprescribed lifetime can be in the form of a life-time attributereflecting an expiration date or set duration, periodicity, etc.

An intent object 105 can be deleted or deactivated based on events,situations, or environmental triggers, which can collectively bereferred to as “occurrences”. These occurrences can be related to aspecific purpose, objective or characteristic of the intent object, suchas the completion of a goal or objective. In some cases, occurrences canbe of sufficient magnitude (e.g., importance, weight, significance,etc.) that they can cause the deletion or deactivation of an intentobject even if the occurrences are entirely unrelated to the intentobject. These “critical” occurrences can cause the deletion ordeactivation of an intent object because they render the furtherevolution or purpose of the intent object impossible or irrelevant. Forexample, a “job stress” intent object represents a person's stressedstate of mind related to a current situation at work, such as anupcoming meeting or deadline. Typically, the job stress intent objectcan be affected and thus modified by factors related to the intentobject, such as the completion of preparatory tasks or completing ofgoals leading up to the deadline. Unrelated occurrences or events ofrelatively minor importance such as the future release of a movie thatthe person is interested in typically would not influence the job stressintent object. The occurrence of a major event, such as the person beinginvolved in a car accident on their way to work, can cause the deletionor deactivation of an intent object by making it impossible to furtherdevelop the intent object because, as a result of the accident,attending the meeting has become impossible or by making the intentobject irrelevant because, as a result of the accident, the person is ofa mindset where they no longer care about the meeting.

The modification of an intent object 105 by the intent management engine102 can include an adjustment of one or more relevancy attributes of theintent object 105 with respect to the environmental interactionrepresentation. The relevancy attributes of an intent object 105 areattributes used to determine how closely related the intent object 105is to an event, situation, environment or other occurrence. Relevancyattributes can include a correlation between the interaction attributesof a particular interaction space for a particular environmentalinteraction representation and those of the intent object. Thecorrelation indicated by a relevancy attribute can be a degree ofsimilarity (i.e., for interaction attributes found to have associatedintent object attributes via match, mapping, clustering, etc., howsimilar are their values), a collective similarity (i.e., how manycorrelated attributes or commonalities exist between the interactionattributes and the intent object attributes). Similarity can be measuredbased on a vector of attributes defined within a namespace and theEuclidean distance between the vectors, among other techniques (e.g.,Hamming distance, Fisher information difference, etc). Thus, theadjustment to the relevancy attributes by the intent management engine102 can be adjustments based on changes in the similarities orcorrelations between an environment (via the interaction attributes) andthe intent object. In other words, the intent object becomes more orless relevant to a particular environmental interaction representation.As such, the relevancy attributes are adjusted such that the effect ofthe environment on various attributes of the intent object 105 isincreased or decreased.

In one approach, the intent object 105 can be created based on aplurality of input information associated with intent object attributes.One or more of these input attributes can be trigger attributes thatcause the instantiation of the intent object 105 as a function of theinput attributes corresponding to the collected input information.

An intent object 105 can be created based on a combination of otherintent objects. The intent object 105 can also be created based on oneor more other intent objects and input attributes, triggering thecreation of a new intent object.

The intent object 105 can be created based on a clustering of theassociated attributes. A number of clustering algorithms may beemployed. For example, k-means or k-median clustering algorithms can beused to form clusters of collected attributes. These collected clusterscan then be instantiated into an intent object. Available attributes canbe used for more than one cluster by changing the clustering algorithmto account for a particular type of intent object to be created. Thisallows for clustering according to certain similarities of theattributes while also forming intent objects whose characteristics canbe influenced by attributes beyond those used in the clustering.

The intent object 105 can be created or modified based on a weightedconsideration of the available intent object attributes. The attributescan be weighted based on how they relate to categories or levels ofintent objects. The attribute weights can have a single value or havemultiple values.

The attributes used in creating or modifying intent objects can beassociated with gathered historical data about the user.

The attribute information can be gathered without explicitly requestinginput from the user (other than perhaps requesting authorization fromthe user to gather data related to the user, so as to address privacyconcerns). The data can be automatically gathered from sources such associal networks (including updates and posts created by the user andalso created by others about the user), organizational memberships(e.g., customer loyalty programs, professional organizations, countryclub memberships, hobby or activity groups, online communities),government records (e.g., DMV records, criminal records, passportrecords, property ownership records, voter registration, etc.), medicalrecords, health records, personal device data (e.g., cell phone,personal transaction cards, etc.), financial records, purchase records,credit reports, browser histories, internet search histories and anyother accessible source of information related to the user. The recordsthat are permitted to be accessed, as well as level of access to thesepermitted records, can be adjusted for privacy and securityconsiderations.

Attribute information can be user-provided via data gathering interfacesthat a user can respond to specifically for the purposes of creatingintent objects. These data gathering interfaces can includequestionnaires, surveys, location-based queries, consumer feedbackquestionnaires, personality profile questionnaires, psychological tests,intelligence tests, etc. The data gathering interfaces can beproprietary, existing questionnaires, or use a combination of both. Forexample, a user can be asked to input biographical, biometric anddemographic data about themselves. The user can also be asked to provideimportant life events, and their reaction or feelings about thoseevents. The user can be asked to provide information about theirinterests (e.g., favorite music, hobbies, season of the year, sportsteams, etc.). The user can be asked to take personality or psychologytests. These tests can be tests typically used in a clinical or medicalsetting.

Attributes can also be derived by using gathered data corresponding toan output, wherein the attribute information is the inferred inputresulting in the output. For example, if the gathered data includes datarepresenting a status post on a social network, an implementation of ahidden Markov model can be used to narrow down the possible reasons ormotivations for the user to post the specific post. The most likelyfactors that resulted in the status post can then be collected asattribute information for the generation of the intent object.

Attributes can include an importance factor attribute (also known as animportance attribute). The importance factor can be based on therelative importance of an intent object 105 at any given time,reflective of the immediacy or urgency of the intent within the totalityof a user's state of mind. In other words, the importance factor can beconsidered to represent that an intent is “in the front/back of a user'smind”. The importance factor can be based on spatial, logical, ortemporal distance of the user from the attributes constituting theintent object. The importance factor can be based in part on therelative hierarchical level of the intent object. This allows for theadjustment of an intent object to match the current importance of thestate of mind that the intent object represents within the user'simmediate attention. It is important to note the difference between theimportance factor and a relevancy attribute. As noted above, therelevancy attributes determine the degree or fidelity of therelationship between an intent object 105 and an environmentalinteraction representation—how closely related the intent object 105 isto a particular event, situation, environment, etc. Thus, it is possiblethat an intent object 105 has a high relevancy attribute value for aparticular environment but a low importance factor for the environmentbecause, at that particular moment, there are more pressing things onthe user's mind. For example, considering an intent object 105 for auser reflective of the intent to keep their home clean, associatedintent object attributes can include attributes associated with timerequired to clean the home, current distance from home, necessarysupplies to clean the home, time since the last cleaning of the home,amount of supplies currently at home, etc. Based on an imagerepresentation (e.g. photo or video data) of a shopping mall, the intentmanagement engine 102 can associate the interaction space of theshopping mall (e.g., a home improvement store or supermarket) with thoseof the necessary supplies needed to clean the home. Thus, the shoppingmall environment can be deemed to be highly relevant (and thus have ahigh relevance score) for the intent object 105. However, the intentobject attribute indicates the user last cleaned the home yesterday,indicative of the fact that it is unlikely the user needs to worry aboutthat for a while. Thus, based on the “time since last cleaning”attribute, the intent management engine 102 determines that theimportance of the intent object 105 is relatively low. As such, for thesame intent object 105 and with regard to a same environment at the sametime, the importance attribute for the intent object 105 can be lowwhile the relevancy attribute is high.

Attributes can include an intent object level identifier that indicatesthe intent object's position within a hierarchy of intent objects. Anattribute can include an identifier that indicates a permanence of theintent object. The permanence attribute is indicative of the ability fora particular intent object to be modified, including a resistance tochange. Thus, the permanence attribute can be a modification factor tothe relationship rules between certain intent object attributes ofcertain types between two intent objects and/or between interactionattributes and the intent object attributes of an intent object. Thepermanence attribute can serve to increase the effect of an externalchange on a particular intent object attribute (e.g., effect due to achange to a particular interaction attribute or other intent object'sattribute).

Intent objects 105 can also be related to specific topics or categoriesof a person's life, such as specific activities, profession, career,medical necessities, cultural background, demographics, politicalbeliefs, religious beliefs, or financial situation. In embodiments,intent objects 105 can be categorized according to these specific topicsor categories and include a category attribute reflecting the same.

For example, an intent object 105 can be a travel intent, an educationalintent, a gaming intent, a shopping intent, a health intent, anentertainment intent, a professional intent, a legal intent, a moralintent, a religious intent, a political intent, or other type of intent.

A travel intent can include a booking intent, a commission intent, adestination intent, a place of origin intent, a tour intent, ahospitality intent, a check-in intent, a route intent, a cargo intent, aluggage intent, a sightseeing intent, or a traffic intent.

An educational intent can include a teaching intent, a syllabus intent,a curriculum intent, a learning objective intent, a conditioning intent,an assignment intent, an exam intent, an evaluation intent, a mentoringintent, a note-taking intent, a certification intent, a disciplineintent, an instructional intent, a grading intent, or a lecturingintent.

A gaming intent can include an objective intent, a strategy intent, abet intent, a wager intent, an instructions intent, a rules intent, ascore intent, a survival intent, a demo intent, a role-playing intent, astealth intent, or a tactical intent.

A shopping intent can include a purchase intent, a selling intent, adelivery intent, a spending intent, a budget intent, a barter intent, atrading intent, a return intent, an exchange intent, a bargainingintent, a discount intent, a sale intent, a clearance intent, amanufacturing intent, a retail intent, an inventory intent, an auctionintent, a commission intent, a sales objective intent, a storage intent,a display intent, a social intent, a gift intent, a credit intent, or atransaction intent.

A health intent can include a fitness intent, a diet intent, a strengthintent, a cardiovascular intent, an exercise intent, a running intent, aswimming intent, a stretching intent, a weight-loss intent, aweight-gain intent, a muscle growth intent, a bodybuilding intent, anagility intent, a quickness intent, a speed intent, a nutrition intent,a fat-loss intent, a hygiene intent, a cosmetic intent, an enduranceintent, a blood pressure intent, an energy intent, a flexibility intent,a performance intent, a recovery intent, a relaxation intent, atherapeutic intent, a toning intent, a training intent, a stretchingintent, a skills intent, a warm up intent or a workout intent.

An entertainment intent can include an entertainment activity intent, ahobby intent, a holiday intent, a weekend intent, an anticipationintent, or a nightlife intent.

A professional intent can include a professional ethics intent, a careerdevelopment intent, a job satisfaction intent or a professional courtesyintent.

A legal intent can be representative of a person's state of mindregarding the law. The legal intent can also be representative of aperson's state of mind regarding compliance with one or more laws,including severity of the punishment associated with non-compliance. Forexample, the legal intent can reflect the fact that a person disagreeswith a particular law and also the person's inclination to follow itdepending on the nature of the law and punishment. In this example, aperson may disagree with a speed limit and as such, not follow it unlessthey see a police car. Conversely, a person may disagree with tax laws,but they will pay their taxes regardless notwithstanding their opinionof the tax code.

A moral intent can be representative of a person's moral beliefs, suchas what a person views as morally “right versus wrong”. The moral intentcan be derived based on a person's historical reactions to morallydivisive issues, such as comments in emails, social networking, messageboards, or choices in gaming situations.

A religious intent can be representative of a person's religious beliefsand state of mind regarding those beliefs. The religious intent can bebased on a person's designated religion as well as their adherence tothe customs, traditions or other beliefs associated with that religion.

A political intent can be representative of a person's political beliefsor ideals.

Multiple intent objects can exist concurrently for a user, havingdiffering levels of permanence and importance, and across multiplecategories. The different intent objects of a particular user may alsohave interconnections that allow for changes in intent objects to affector modify other intent objects. FIG. 3 illustrates one possible exampleof the relationship between intent objects of different levels, and withexternal environmental stimulus. For the purposes of simplicity, FIG. 3only illustrates three levels of intent objects. However, any number oflevels can be used.

FIG. 3 illustrates a group of intent objects 301, 302 and 303 arrangedin a hierarchical relationship. Each intent object 301,302,303 hasconnections 302,304,306 establishing the relationship between theindividual intent object and external influences. The externalinfluences may be other intent objects or other external occurrences,such as those originating from the environment 307.

In the example illustrated in FIG. 3, a user can have one or more “core”intent objects 301. These core intent objects 301 can be euphemisticallyconsidered the user's “digital soul” with respect to their intentions.In other words, the core intent objects 301 can be considered arepresentation of a user's personality, the collection of corepsychological and personality traits and fundamental beliefs that makesthe person who they are as represented by their intentions. A user canhave one or more central core intent objects 301 representing a corelevel 310 of intent objects. Intent objects of the core level 310represent the aspects of a person that change slowly over a long periodof a person's life.

The intermediate intent object 303 represents an intermediary level 311of intent objects, having intent objects that change more quickly thanthose of the core level 310, but are not generally created or destroyedby instant or singularly identifiable occurrences. There can be multipleintermediate intent objects 303 that form the intermediary level 311between the core level 310 and the boundary level 312.

The boundary intent object 305 represents a boundary level 312 of intentobjects. Intent objects within boundary level 312 are typically capableof being directly affected by instant occurrences (e.g., events,situations, environments) from an external cause, such as theenvironment 307. These intent objects can be of relatively lowpermanence or duration, representing shorter, relatively transientstates of mind.

In a hierarchical organization, an intent object can be both anintermediary intent object 303 and a boundary intent object 305,depending on the attributes of the intent object and how the attributesmay be affected by the environment 307.

The connections 302, 304 in FIG. 3 illustrates that intent objects 301and 303, and 303 and 305, respectively, are interrelated. Forinterrelated intent objects, a change or modification to one intentobject can result in a corresponding change in a related object. Therelationship between two intent objects can be established and governedby relationship rules belonging to the intent objects and to the systemas a whole. For example, in a hierarchical relationship such as the oneillustrated in FIG. 3, a relationship rule can include rules that anintent object can only have a direct relationship with intent objects ofa hierarchical level below, a hierarchical level above, or of the samehierarchical level. The interrelationship between intent objects can beestablished and governed according to the attributes of the intentobjects. For example, intent objects can be connected according tooverlapping, or common attributes shared by the intent objects. Certainattributes of an intent object can include rules or pointers to otherattributes of other intent objects establishing a relationship betweenthe attributes. The attributes of an intent object can include weighingor factoring algorithms or functions that can adjust how a particularattribute can be changed in response to a change in a neighboring intentobject.

Changes or modifications of an intent object can ripple across a chainor network of interconnected intent objects according to the rulesgoverning the connections and attributes. For example, in thehierarchical organization of intent objects shown in FIG. 3, a change toa boundary object 305 resulting from an external occurrence originatingin environment 307 can cause a change in intermediate object 303, whichin turn can modify core intent object 301. However, as the intentobjects are closer to the core level 310, they are increasinglyresistant to change (illustrated in FIG. 3 by the relative size of theintent objects 301, 303 and 305). To ensure that the changes in anintent object are properly propagated among the hierarchy, therelationship between the intent objects take into account the sizeand/or hierarchy of the neighboring objects, and therefore, themagnitude of the effect of the rules or attributes of neighboring intentobjects have on the intent object. Thus, in the illustrative example ofFIG. 3, the interaction between intent objects can be visualized asbeing a relationship between circular gears or discs of different sizes,whereby the angular displacement (i.e., rotation) of the illustratedintent objects 301, 303, 305 corresponds to the amount of change to eachintent object. As in a set of gears, an angular displacement of a largerintent object (such as core intent object 301) results in a largerangular displacement of a smaller intent object (such as intent object303) that rotates with it, which then causes an even larger angulardisplacement of smaller intent objects connected to it (such as intentobject 305). This angular displacement can correspond to a change to asingle attribute of the intent object or more than one attribute of theintent object.

The relationship of boundary object 305 with intermediate intent object303 can include a commonality of a plurality of attributes, determinedvia a mapping of attributes of a like type or kind, or of a similar kindas determined via clustering or other statistical analysis. Therelationship rules between these attributes can include proportionalityrules, where an attribute or change in attribute in one intent objectresults in a proportionally adjusted attribute or change in attribute.For example, a change in an attribute of boundary intent object 305 willcause a proportionally reduced change in a corresponding attribute ofintermediate intent object 303. Conversely, a change in an attribute ofintermediate intent object 303 can cause a proportionally large changein a corresponding attribute of boundary intent object 305. This enablesthe system to gradually modify the objects 301 of core level 310 overtime in response to changes in relatively transient or situationalobjects 305 and intermediaries 303, thus reflecting how short-term,individual situations or events can drastically change a temporary stateof mind, but gradually change more permanent states of mind and veryslowly evolve aspects of a person such as their personality, beliefs,etc. Likewise, a change to a core object 301 will propagate outwardtowards the boundary level 312, and the effect on each subsequent intentobject is increased, ultimately causing a large change to thecorresponding attributes of boundary intent object 305. A change toattributes of core intent objects 301 can be of a sufficient magnitudeto result in the deletion or elimination of one or more of the intentobjects 303,305.

In a hierarchical relationship, the elimination of a lower-leveledintent object (for example, 303) can result in the elimination ofhigher-leveled intent objects “supported” by the lower level object (forexample, 305).

In embodiments where multiple core intent objects 301 are used, eachcore intent object 301 can be generated and categorized according togeneral personality traits. The traits can be defined according todesired target classifications of users. For example, the personalitytraits can correspond to psychological or personality characteristics ortraits as defined, outlined or otherwise characterized by professionalauthorities (e.g., psychological authorities, medical authorities,etc.). In embodiments where a single core intent object 301 is used, thesingle core intent object 301 can be instantiated from an analysis of auser's personality traits.

As discussed above, an intent object can be used as a seed or templateto generate other, related intent objects which can be referred togenerally as “derivative intent objects”. In a hierarchical structure, aderivative intent object can be generated according to a rule setassociated with one or more attributes of the seed intent object. Therule set can include changes to the one or more attributes that triggerthe creation of the derivative intent object. The rule set can includethe presence of one or more attributes in the seed intent objectcombined with a particular occurrence originating from environment 307that gives rise to the derivative intent object. The derivative intentobject can include one or more attributes from the seed intent, as wellas attributes and rules unique to the derivative object. The uniqueattributes can be hierarchically-appropriate attributes or rules,environmental occurrence-related rules, or rules related to the use ofthe derivative intent object as a seed or template object itself.

In embodiments, intent objects can be generated and/or modified by theintent management engine 102 in a digital model according to theillustrated circular/gear model illustrated in FIG. 3. In theseembodiments, the attributes of the intent object are correlated to theproperties of a disc or gear, and their interactions modeledaccordingly. For example, size of the intent objects can be based on thehierarchy level attribute of the intent object, whereby each hierarchylevel has a range of sizes corresponding to the respective hierarchy.Within those ranges, the actual size of the intent object can bedependent or based on the intent object attributes such as permanence,importance, relevancy, duration as well as proportionality rules betweentwo intent objects. Because intent objects are multi-dimensional and canhave relationships with multiple intent objects according to differentassociations of different attributes or combinations of attributes, asingle intent object can react or change differently to two different,separate intent objects that act upon it. Thus, a single intent objectcan have two relatively different sizes in their interactions with twodifferent other intent objects because of the proportionality rules. Asdiscussed above, a duration attribute can correspond to a decay functionof an intent object. Thus, duration attributes can cause an intentobject disc to decay in size over time. Importance attributes, andrelevancy attributes can still cause the disc to increase in size, butdue to the duration attribute the disc will decay in size over time and,if no additional increases in size occur, will eventually decay to asize of zero and cease to exist.

In embodiments, the intent object discs can be considered to be modeledby the management engine 102 as mass-less discs, thus the changes (i.e.rotation) of one intent object influences another, and the degree ofrotation of each is solely governed by their respective sizes. In theseembodiments, then, the angular displacement across the entire system canbe considered to be conversed.

In some embodiments, the modeling of intent objects as discs or gearscan include a mass attribute. In these embodiments, the mass attributecan be correlated to the hierarchy level attribute of the intent object(instead of having it influence the size). The type or category ofintent object (according to its category attribute) can also be used toinfluence the mass of a particular intent object disc. In this case, themass attribute of an intent object corresponds to a density of theobject, and the total intent object mass at any given time is thencalculated based on the size of the particular intent object which canbe dependent on the importance and relevancy intent object attributes asdiscussed above (not including the hierarchy level or permanenceattributes). In these embodiments, the permanence attribute of an intentobject is modeled as a force or a coefficient of friction opposing amovement to an intent object disc, and the interaction attributesderived from the interaction space and the environmental interactionrepresentation as described above can be considered to be forces actingon the intent object disc to move the disc. Thus, to determine thechange in an intent object by the interaction attributes of a particularenvironment, the intent management engine 102 can apply the forcerepresented by the interaction attributes to the intent object disc. Bytaking into account the opposing forces (based on the permanenceattributes) and the disc's moment of inertia, the intent managementengine 102 can then determine how much an attribute has changedaccording to the angular displacement of the disc. If the interactionattribute forces aren't sufficient to overcome the moment of inertia andcoefficient of friction, then the intent object will not be changedbecause the disc will not rotate. It should be appreciated that mass andforce represent a physics based metaphor through which intent objectinteractions can be modeled. The parameters of such physics models canbe established through empirical analysis of training data and testingdata (e.g., initial estimates adjusted based on user surveys, etc.).

It should be noted that in these embodiments, the modeling of intentobject discs can be performed system wide (i.e., linked intent objectdiscs all serve to resist an interaction attribute force, so theinteraction attributes must be sufficient to overcome the collectiveresistance of the system to affect even the boundary layer intentobject) or individually between locally (i.e., two immediately adjacent)interacting elements (intent object discs, or an intent object disc andinteraction attributes of an environment) one at a time. Where thechanges are modeled individually, the interaction (such as interaction306) for a boundary layer intent object disc (such a boundary levelintent object 305) is first modeled for the interaction with theinteraction attributes of an environment (such as environment 307) only,without any influences by other intent object discs; subsequently theinteraction (e.g., interaction 304) between the boundary layer intentobject disc and the next layer intent object disc (such as withintermediate intent object 303) is modeled based on the properties ofboth discs and the determined movement of the boundary layer disc, andso on.

In the example of FIG. 3, interactions 306 with environment 307 areshown as two-way interactions via a bi-directional arrow. As describedabove, the interaction 306 into the system (i.e. towards boundary intentobject 305) corresponds to the interaction between interactiveattributes and the corresponding intent object attributes of the intentobject 305. However, the outgoing attributes (i.e., arrow towardsenvironment 307) can be considered to represent the adjustments to anoutput device action based on the change to one or more of the intentobjects 305, 303, 301, such as in response to the interaction attributesof the particular interaction space according to the particularenvironmental interaction representations of the instant environmentand/or other interaction attributes or other intent objects that causechanges to the intent objects 305, 303, 301.

In addition to intent objects, embodiments of the inventive subjectmatter can generate, modify and use thought objects associated with auser. A thought object can be a data object representing a product of auser's mental activity. The product can be the result or outcome ofmental activity triggered by a stimulus (e.g., sensory, intellectual,physiological, psychological, emotional, etc.). Examples of a product ofmental activity can include an idea, an observation, a conclusion, anopinion, a memory, a consideration, a reflection, a belief, aninterpretation and an understanding. Although the thought object isdescribed with respect to mental activity, it should be appreciated thatthe thought objects are digital models and derived based on observablesensor data.

The thought object can be related to, associated with, based on, ordirected to the stimulus that triggered the formation of the user'smental product based on observed sensor data. Examples of stimuli caninclude one or more of a single real-world object (e.g., the user'sfirst car, etc.), a type of a real-world object (e.g., all cars of thesame make and model), a collection of real-world objects (e.g., all ofthe furniture in a user's living room collectively), a story, aparticular person (e.g., wife, boss, etc.), a group of people (e.g.,family, friends, golf buddies, co-workers, etc.), an event (e.g., auser's wedding, graduation, etc.), a series of events, a specific time,a specific date, a recurring date (e.g., a user's birthday, the day rentis due every month, etc.), a time period (e.g., a user's college years,the 1985 Chicago professional football season, etc.), a place, a sound,a scene, a song, a video, a game, a smell, a color, a taste, a tactilesensation, a situation, an image, an institution (e.g., a particularcompany, the user's employer, the user's college, etc.), an account(e.g., a financial account, email account, etc.), an electronic profile(e.g., social network profile, online gaming profile, etc.), a newsitem, an environment, an experience, a problem, an injury, an illness, amedical procedure, an education, a profession, a job, a career, a place,a location, a culture, a geographical region, a country, a state, acity, a food, a hobby, an activity, a debate, an intellectual exercise,a riddle, a joke and an anecdote.

A thought object can include attributes that define the thought object.The attributes of the thought object can be considered the factors orcharacteristics of the product of a user's mental process. Theattributes can be reflective of the product itself, aspects of theprocess that gave rise to the product, and/or the stimulus thattriggered the mental process. Examples of attributes of a thought objectcan include a thought object identifier, a thought object type attribute(e.g., identifying the thought object as an idea, an opinion, anobservation, etc.), a stimulus attribute (e.g., what stimulus is thethought object related to, associated with, based on, in response to,etc.), a time attribute, a duration attribute, a knowledge attribute, asentiment attribute (e.g., a person's sentiment, feeling and/orpredisposition regarding the subject of or stimulus associated with athought object, emotions associated with the), a user attribute, ademographic attribute, a location attribute, a relationship attribute(e.g., what is the user's relationship with the subject of the thoughtobject), and other attributes that define the thought object.

The knowledge attribute can be representative of what a person “knows”with regard to a mental process, a mental process product and/or astimulus, independent of sentiment. For example, a person observing acar that looks blue to them “knows” that the car is blue. As such, theknowledge attribute for a thought object associated with that particularcar for that person reflects the user's personal knowledge that they seethe car as blue. The knowledge attribute does not represent the person'sfeelings or attitudes—so in the car example, the knowledge attributedoes not indicate whether the person feels positively or negativelyabout the color blue used in the car, whether it looks good on the car,whether it's the right shade of blue, etc. Because a knowledge attributecan be based on a person's personal knowledge, the knowledge attributeis not required to be objectively or factually correct, or objectivelyor factually complete. For example, the visual perspective of a smallchild can be different from that of a tall adult, or from two peoplehaving different levels of eyesight quality. As such, the knowledgeattribute for each person can be different, even if they are associatedwith the same stimulus.

The thought object can include an awareness attribute, reflective of alevel or amount of a person's awareness of the stimulus and/or thoughtsregarding the stimulus itself. This can be used to account for the factthat a person does not have immediate recollection of all of theirideas, observations, memories, etc. at all times, that sometimes theperson's awareness of these thoughts can wane or fade, and thatsometimes a person can be aware of something but routinely ignore it(e.g., background things, things seen daily as part of a habit, etc.).The thought object can also include an association attribute,corresponding to associations that the stimulus associated with thethought object can have with other stimuli. In an embodiment, theassociation attribute can be considered a link to other thought objectssharing similar attributes or to other thought objects having anestablished relationship. The association attribute can further reflectthe strength of the association or interconnection of the stimuli. Thisawareness and association can include an awareness of what an object is,what it represents to the person on its own, what it represents to theperson in combination with other things.

Thought objects can be reflective of entirely objective knowledge,entirely subjective knowledge, or a combination of objective andsubjective knowledge. For example, a thought object regarding amathematical principle, concept or formula can reflect the objectiveknowledge of how the principle is used in mathematics, or what an answermight be given an objective input. The same thought object can alsoreflect a subjective knowledge by the person, such as an opinion onwhether the concept is difficult or easy, how useful it is in apractical application, whether the user feels it is ‘worth’ learning ormastering, etc.

If intent can be considered a person's state of mind that might directthe person's actions towards an objective, outcome, result, goal, etc.,then thoughts can be considered to be independent of motivation. Thoughtobjects are self-contained, meaning the thought objects are notpurpose-driven with respect to a user's actions. In other words, thoughtobjects can be considered as a representation of the effect or outcomearising from stimulus experienced by a person.

A thought object can be generated by identifying a stimulus that a userhas experienced, and gathering attribute information reflective of aproduct or result of a user's executed mental process in response to thestimulus or associated with the stimulus. The stimulus can beidentified, and the attribute information can be gathered via some orall of the sources used to gather intent object attribute information,as described above. For example, to identify what a user considers to be“blue” in the car example above, the intent management engine 102 cansearch for and retrieve user interactions in social networks (forinstances where the user has discussed color-related topics, commentedon photographs, edited their own photos or videos, etc.), web browserusage (which in this example could include the user's activity onart-related websites, websites that allow a custom build of a new car,photography websites, etc.), user interactions with applications such asphoto or video editors, etc.

The thought object can include a trigger related to the thought. Thetrigger can be the particular stimulus that gave rise to the thoughtobject, and the system's recognition of the stimulus can be used totrigger the system's use of the thought object after the thought objecthas been created.

In embodiments, the system can include thought object templatescorresponding to general knowledge concepts common to groups of people,such as based on studies, surveys, etc. The templates can be categorizedaccording to various types or groups of knowledge and contain nullvalues for their corresponding attributes, which are then populated bythe intent management engine 102 when the thought object for a user isinstantiated. Examples of categories of thought objects can includelanguage, mathematics, colors, size perception, vehicles, people,places, home objects, office objects, distance perception, etc.

Thought objects can be modified over time, reflective of how a user'sthoughts about a particular circumstance in their life changes overtime. For example, the strength or intensity of a user's feeling aboutan event in the past may fade over time. As such, the subjective aspectsof the thought object and their ability to affect related thoughtobjects or intent objects will decrease over time.

The system can be used to enable a communication between people viaobjects having a particular meaning or significance to those people. Assuch, the system can create a social network of thoughts based onassociations of thought objects belonging to different people, such asthought-objects related to the same real-world object. People withsimilar thoughts about a particular real-world object, for example, canbe grouped together into a social network together, such as to sharetheir thoughts, experiences, etc., about the object. The system can alsobe configured to present prompts or suggestions based on thought objectstied to the detection of real-world objects.

For example, suppose that a user has fond memories of spending summersgrowing up at the family lake house. In particular, the user has fondmemories of helping his father with the barbeque, where the user and hisfather would share this bonding experience over a particular brand ofcola. In the digital space, the user has a thought object associatedwith the particular brand of cola, including a positive affinity for thebrand of cola based on the association of the cola with those specialmoments in the user's life. The cola thought object can also haveassociations with other thought objects, such as thought objects relatedto the time periods fitting the user's memories (the childhood summersin which these events occurred, or childhood in general), with a thoughtobject related to the user's father and/or family, and thought objectsrelated to a particular scene (e.g., a summer evening, sun setting, lakein the background, etc.), among others.

At some point, the user takes a photo using the camera of their mobiledevice, where the photo contains a cola bottle of the same brand(alternatively, the photo could contain a sign, billboard oradvertisement for the cola, or be a cola delivery truck of the brand,etc.). The photo does not necessarily have to be specifically of thecola bottle, only that the bottle appears somewhere in the photo, evenif only coincidentally or by accident (such as in the background). Usingimage recognition techniques, the system can recognize the cola bottlein the photo and trigger the recollection of thought objects associatedwith the imagery of the cola bottle. In this case, the user's thoughtobject about the cola bottle itself, along with the positive feelingsthat the user associates with the cola bottle from their memories of thesummertime barbeques. The system further identifies thought objectshaving associations related to the cola thought object and the positivefeelings associated therewith, such as the thought objects associatedwith the user's father, the lake house setting, the summertime periods,etc.

In this example, the user's father can also have his own digital soul,including his own thought objects, such as a thought object about hisson (the user). Because the user and his father each have thoughtobjects about the other, they can be socially networked via theirthought objects.

In one scenario of the example, the system can use the establishedassociations to trigger an action on the user's device. For example,based on the identification of the cola bottle in the image, and thesubsequent identification of the user's thought object regarding thecola (“cola thought object”) as well as the associations of the colathought object to other thought objects, such as the thought objectregarding the user's father, the system prompts the user to send hisfather a message, such as a short text or email message, voice messageor video message.

In this example, suppose the user selects to send the father a textmessage. Responding to the prompt can initiate a message draftingplatform, where a text message can be drafted. The text message caninclude metadata such as the line or chain of interconnected thoughtobjects that resulted in the prompting of the message, includingmetadata regarding the identification of the cola bottle as the‘trigger’.

The father, as a user of the system himself, will have thought objectsof his own associated with his own thoughts, in response to stimuli fromhis own life. As such, the system can use the metadata from the messageto associate the message with one or more of the father's thoughtobjects.

To receive the message, the father can be required to view or otherwiseexperience the trigger that gave rise to the prompt that the user usedto create the message. In this example, the trigger for the father toreceive the message can be to have his own device capture a cola bottleof the same brand. This message delivery can be tailored to be asurprise, where upon the device spontaneously capturing an imageincluding at least part of the cola bottle (e.g., by accident, or thebottle is in the background of a photo taken for other purposes, or apurposeful imaging of the cola bottle for a different purpose by thefather, etc.), the father's device can provide a notification of themessage. Alternatively, the device can bring up the messageautomatically and surprise the father with a message from the user asthe father's device is capturing images having the bottle. In anotherexample, the message delivery can be associated with a prompt tospecifically capture an image including the cola bottle to receive thebottle. For example, the device can prompt the father that “there's amessage for you inside the cola bottle—take a photo of the bottle toreceive it!” In yet another example, the system can provide a subtle cuefor the father that the cola bottle has ‘something’ for him—such assuperimposing a glow on the bottle via the screen of the father'sdevice.

If the father is not a member of the system, the message can be sent tothe father via traditional message communication channels (e.g., email,SMS, MMS, existing social networking sites, etc.) and include an ad forthe beverage and/or a copy of the image that includes the beveragebottle captured by the user's device that functioned as the trigger forthe message composition.

In another illustrative example, a user's thought objects can be used toused to observe the interconnections and inter-relationships ofreal-world objects as they relate to a user, and the way the thoughtobjects associated with the real-world objects are interrelated, howthey modify each other, and ultimately, how they shape a person'sunderstanding of the world around them.

In observing the representation of the interconnection of thoughtobjects related to real-world objects, it is possible to construct a“digital feng shui” of the thought objects in a person's life. Thisdigital feng shui can be spatial (relationship of objects in a room) ortemporal (relationship of objects over the course of a day, month,etc.).

In this example, the digital feng shui can be used to balance real-worldobjects in a person's environment according to the thought objectsassociated with the real-world objects, as well as associations betweenthe thought objects corresponding to the real-world objects.

The strength and/or intensity of thought objects associated withreal-world objects can be thought of as an “aura” of the real-worldobject. The links between the real-world objects (via associationsbetween their respective thought objects) can be influenced by thestrengths of their respective auras and their spatial and/or temporaldistances. The relative strength or intensity of the thought objects forthe individual person, corresponding to individual real-world objectsand/or to collective groups of real-world objects, can be used toarrange the real-world objects in a person's environment.

For example, the aura of different real-world objects in a person'senvironment can be used to arrange real-world objects to strike aharmony and balance for the person in the environment. In this example,the real-world objects can be arranged such that the positive effects ofthe real-world objects (e.g., those objects to which the person attachespositive thoughts, feelings, emotions) are maximized and the negativeeffects of the real-world objects are minimized. This can includegrouping real-world objects whose combined positive effects (via theirthought objects associations) are greater than that of the sum of eachof the real-world objects separately. This can also include distributingreal-world objects around the room so that “negative” objects arecancelled or otherwise countered by “positive” objects.

In an office environment, the aura can be used to create a workstationor desk environment whose arrangement is designed to increaseproductivity based on the individual's styles, habits, associations,techniques, and other unique factors related to the individual'sperformance of their job functions. In the office example, thoughtobjects associated with different tools around the workstation (e.g.,stapler, computer mouse, keyboard, monitor(s), pens, pencils, deskdrawers) can be linked according to how the user uses them, and also theuser's thoughts regarding the objects as related to a job function. Thethought objects can include habitual information such as what hand auser typically uses to access, hold, grab, use, or otherwise interactwith the real-world object. The office environment aura, then, reflectsreal-world objects and combinations of objects organized so that theyare ‘natural’ to the individual.

The aura of real-world objects in an environment can be presented to auser via an output device, such as a computing device having one or moreof a display, audio outputs, sensory feedback (e.g., vibration, etc.), acamera, etc.

In an embodiment, the aura can be presented visually through augmentedreality applications. As the thought objects and their strengths areaccessed by the system after detecting associated real-world objects,such as by using the device's camera, the visual representation of theaura can be overlaid or superimposed over the depiction of thereal-world object on the device's display screen. The aura can berepresented as a light, a glow, an energy field, etc., that emanatesfrom the real-world object. The aura can visually dissipate over acertain distance according to the strength of the aura, such as bydecreasing in visual intensity, opacity, etc. Aspects of the thoughtobjects (e.g., aspects or characteristics of the thoughts associatedwith the object) can be represented by the colors used in visuallypresenting the aura. For example, a “positive” aura can be representedby a color that the individual likes or that might typically beassociated with positivity (e.g., lighter colors, greens, etc.), whereas“negative” auras can be represented by colors that the individualdislikes or that are typically associated with negativity (e.g., darkercolors, scarlet, gray, etc.).

As real-world objects having associated thought objects are brought intoproximity with one another, the visual auras can interact to illustratea combination of the auras. The visual representation of the auras caninclude visual effects similar to that of a mixing of liquids, includinga merging of colors of different liquids into a common mixture color.When the joining of the auras has an augmenting effect, the intensity ofthe auras can be increased, and the aura “source” can be visuallyrepresented as originating from both, similar to that of pools of light.

In embodiments, thought objects related to a particular real-worldobject (e.g., an individual and unique object, a type of object, a classof object, a brand of object, a specific product, etc.), can be gatheredover time and used to form a thought object specific to the real-worldobject that is independent of any one person or group of people.Additional thought objects related to the real-world object can then beused to contribute to the evolution of the independent thought objectover time. The thought objects used to create and shape the independentthought object can be thought of as the real-world object's “memory”.This independent thought object can interact with other thought objectsof other real-world objects, and can interact with thought objectsbelonging to individuals as well as other independent thought objects.The interaction between independent thought objects can be used to givereal-world objects context in an environment without a particularhuman's thought input as to the context, the real-world objects, or theenvironment.

These links created between real-world objects via associations ofindependent thought objects can be used to enable communication betweenthe real-world objects via their thought objects, such as by modifyingtheir respective thought objects. For objects having the capacity tocommunicate data (e.g., computing devices, cellular phones) regardingthemselves and/or their environment, the communication can be with oneanother, or enabled via a common computing device, such as a server,that can send and receive data from these devices. For objects lackingany data communication capacity, the communication can be effectuatedwhen the objects in an environment are detected, such as by a camera ina user's computing device, phone, etc.

In another example, a person's thought objects can be used to constructa mind map, such as according to thought object associations. The systemto retrieve and present content related to the thought objects accordingto the mind map, and present the content to the user. The content can bepresented in a collage fashion, which can minor the mind map, and canalso incorporate a user's particular perspectives regarding the triggersfor the thought objects.

In another example, a person's thought objects can be used to constructa diary of thoughts, according to a topic (e.g., the stimulus,real-world object, etc., associated with the thought object, anassociated topic, a category, etc.) or temporally (e.g., organizing aday's thoughts based on thought objects created/modified/called uponduring that day).

Intents and thoughts can be intertwined in a person's consciousness. Ifintent can be considered the person's state of mind, then thoughts canbe considered interpretations, opinions, ideas, observations,conclusions, etc., drawn from a stimulus that can give rise to or changea state of mind. Conversely, while a thought can be considered theproduct of a mental process without an influence on a person's actionsor motivations, intent can cloud or modify a thought, such as byclouding or modifying a person's perception of the stimulus or affectingthe mental process that results in the product. As such, intent can beconsidered to be a prism or filter affecting a view of a thought and/orthe connections between thoughts in a particular way.

For example, a person's state of mind at a particular point in time maycause the person to disregard a thought or aspects of a thought, or maycause a person to improperly or incompletely interpret a stimulus. Aperson that is angry might disregard their thought regarding theconsequence of an action. A person that is tired when reading a sciencejournal might miss certain pieces of data within the journal, ormisinterpret the conclusion, and thus form a thought about the articlethat is different from the thought they would have formed if reading thearticle while rested.

As such, intent objects and thought objects can have associations thatcan affect, modify, or otherwise change one or more of an intent object,a thought object, an association between thought objects, an associationbetween intent objects, and associations between thought object(s) andintent object(s).

FIG. 4 provides an overview of an environment that includes acombination of intent objects and thought objects. The exampleillustrated incorporates thought objects 401-405 to the intent objectsof FIG. 3.

As shown in FIG. 4, thought objects can interact with and affect one ormore intent objects associated with a user. The effect that a thoughtobject has on an intent object can depend on various factors of thethought object and intent object as expressed by their respectiveattributes, such as the level of the user's awareness regarding thethought object, the nature of the association of between the thoughtobject and the intent object, the intent object's level, etc. As such, aperson's digital soul can be the combination of the person's core intentobjects and associated thought objects.

Thought object 401 is illustrated as having a relationship with coreintent object 301, and as such the effects of the relationship can beconsidered to be direct. Thought objects 402-405 are illustrated to onlyhave a relationship with intent object 303 via thought object 405. Thus,the effect of the relationship can be considered direct for intentobject 303 and thought object 405, and indirect for the intent object303 and thought objects 402-405. Depending on the relationship betweenthe thought objects 402-405, the effects of the relationships (e.g.,direct, indirect or both) between the thought objects 402-405 and intentobject 303 can be magnified, diminished, or otherwise modified. Forexample, if the relationship of the thought objects 402-405 arecollectively amplified because of their associations (such as in theaura example above), the relationship with the intent object 303 can beconsidered to be with a collective thought object made up of thoughtobjects 402-405. On the other hand, if the relationships of the thoughtobject 402-405 do not result in the collective amplification of thethought object, the effects between the thought objects 402-404 and theintent object 303 can be diminished or decreased. The decrease can bedue to a decrease of the effect as it permeates outward through a chainof thought objects (e.g., effect is strongest between objects 405 and303, then decreased between objects 404 and 303, then further decreasedbetween 402/404 and 303). The decrease can be because the factors thatlead to the relationship between thought object 405 and intent object303 are not shared among all of the other thought objects 402-404, andas such any effects between intent object 303 and those thought objects402-404 do not have the common factors through which to be “channeled”.

In a modified version of the example between a user and his fatherabove, the system can use a combination of intent objects and thoughtobjects to carry out the functions described therein. In this example,the user can have existing intent objects related to the father (e.g.,intent objects related to father's day coming up and thus, to call thefather, buy the father a gift, etc.), which can be used to prompt thecommunication, including the nature of the communication and also toinclude suggestions regarding gifts, stores where to buy the suggestedgifts, etc. The generation of the communication itself can be based onan intent object to communicate with the father, which can be generatedbased on the thought object associated with the detected cola bottle, aswell as the associations of the cola bottle thought object with theother thought objects of the user described in the example.

In embodiments incorporating independent thought objects for real-worldobjects, the system can further generate independent intent objects forreal-world objects, which are independent of any particular individualor group of individuals. In one example, the independent intent objectcan be representative of a real-world object's “purpose”, as well asreflective of the real-world object's “desire” to fulfill that purpose.The purpose can be a global purpose (e.g., a car's purpose is to providetransportation) or a specific purpose (e.g., a particular car's purposeis to travel from point A to point B on a specific trip, to be a rentalcar, etc.). The independent intent object can be generated or affectedby the independent thought object, which can include the real-worldobject's “thoughts” on what it is. The independent intent object can begenerated from an aggregation of thought objects and/or intent objectsfrom individuals that are related to the real-world object, collectedover time. As such, what the world “thinks” of a real-world object cangive rise to an independent intent object motivated by those thoughts.The independent intent object can similarly modify or change theindependent thought object, reflecting how a motivation or intent canaffect a thought by clouding the thought, affecting interpretation, etc.The combination of independent intent objects and independent thoughtobjects can be considered a real-world object's digital soul, which canaffect the relationships that the real-world object has with otherreal-world object (via the interaction with the digital souls of theother real-world objects).

It is contemplated that the system described above can be implemented toenable a person to use their mobile device as a “magic wand” that caninteract with the physical world, enabling the discovery of information,links, collected wisdom, thoughts, ideas, etc., “hidden” within theobjects that make up the physical world and invisible to the naked eye.The system enables this implementation of the discovery of andengagement (e.g., interaction, transactions, etc.) with the physicalworld through a user's mobile device, as an extension of the user'sinterpretation of and existence in the physical world.

As used herein, and unless the context dictates otherwise, the term“coupled to” is intended to include both direct coupling (in which twoelements that are coupled to each other contact each other) and indirectcoupling (in which at least one additional element is located betweenthe two elements). Therefore, the terms “coupled to” and “coupled with”are used synonymously.

It should be apparent to those skilled in the art that many moremodifications besides those already described are possible withoutdeparting from the inventive concepts herein. The inventive subjectmatter, therefore, is not to be restricted except in the spirit of theappended claims. Moreover, in interpreting both the specification andthe claims, all terms should be interpreted in the broadest possiblemanner consistent with the context. In particular, the terms “comprises”and “comprising” should be interpreted as referring to elements,components, or steps in a non-exclusive manner, indicating that thereferenced elements, components, or steps may be present, or utilized,or combined with other elements, components, or steps that are notexpressly referenced. Where the specification claims refers to at leastone of something selected from the group consisting of A, B, C . . . andN, the text should be interpreted as requiring only one element from thegroup, not A plus N, or B plus N, etc.

What is claimed is:
 1. A method of controlling an electronic device tolearn intents of a user and control output actions based on intents, themethod comprising: providing access by the electronic device to anintent management engine; providing access by the electronic device toan intent database configured to store intent objects according tointeraction attributes; obtaining, by the intent management engine, anenvironmental interaction representation related to an environment ofthe electronic device, including obtaining sensor data from two or moreof the following sensors; a camera, a microphone, a thermometer, aglobal positioning system (GPS) sensor, a mechanical sensor, a chemicalsensor, a biometric sensor, a hall effect sensor, an accelerometer, apressure sensor, a compass, a magnetometer, a gas sensor, a speedsensor, a breathalyzer, an electrochemical sensor, a touch display, anoptical sensor, a proximity sensor, a vibration sensor, a piezoelectricsensor, a capacitive sensor, a resistive sensor, a current sensor, amagnetometer, a voltage sensor, a liquid sensor, and a weight sensor,and forming the environmental interaction representation based on theobtained sensor data; deriving, by the intent management engine,interaction attributes within an interaction space as a function of theenvironmental interaction representation; modifying, by the intentmanagement engine, at least one intent object from the intent databasebased on the interaction attributes, wherein the at least one intentobject includes a life time attribute; outputting, by the electronicdevice, a request for confirmation by the user of a user state of mindcorresponding to the modified intent object; receiving input from theuser indicating whether the user state of mind is confirmed; using theuser input to map a correlation between interaction attributes and themodified intent object; and configuring an output device, by the intentmanagement engine, to adjust an output device action according to the atleast one modified intent object.
 2. The method of claim 1, wherein thestep of modifying the at least one intent object includes at least oneof instantiating, removing, deleting, activating, deactivating,classifying, archiving, exporting, forwarding, importing, receiving,tagging, duplicating, selecting, and adding information to the at leastone intent object.
 3. The method of claim 1, wherein the step ofmodifying the at least one intent object includes adjusting theexpiration time of the intent object.
 4. The method of claim 1, whereinthe step of modifying the at least one intent object includes adjustinga relevancy attribute of the intent object with respect to theenvironmental interaction representation.
 5. The method of claim 4,wherein the relevancy attribute is multi-valued.
 6. The method of claim5, wherein the relevancy attribute comprises multiple dimensionsaccording to the interaction space.
 7. The method of claim 1, whereinthe life time comprises a duration.
 8. The method of claim 1, whereinthe at least one intent object comprises at least one of a proposedfuture intent object, a current intent object, a suggested intentobject, and a user selected intent object.
 9. The method of claim 1,wherein the at least one intent object comprises at least one of a userattribute, a demographic attribute, a goal attribute, a privacyattribute, a priority attribute, and a location attribute.
 10. Themethod of claim 1, wherein the step of obtaining an environmentalinteraction representation includes obtaining data from a sensor. 11.The method of claim 10, wherein the sensor comprises at least one of acamera, a microphone, a thermometer, a global positioning system (GPS)sensor, a mechanical sensor, a chemical sensor, a biometric sensor, ahall effect sensor, an accelerometer, a pressure sensor, a compass, amagnetometer, a gas sensor, a speed sensor, a breathalyzer, anelectrochemical sensor, a touch display, an optical sensor, a proximitysensor, a vibration sensor, a piezoelectric sensor, a capacitive sensor,a resistive sensor, a current sensor, a magnetometer, a voltage sensor,a liquid sensor, and a weight sensor.
 12. The method of claim 1, whereinthe step of obtaining an environmental interaction representationincludes obtaining input from an interface.
 13. The method of claim 12,wherein the interface comprises at least one of a touch screen, akeyboard, a controller, a joystick, a track ball, a mouse, a light pen,a graphic tablet, a barcode reader, a gamepad, a paddle, an electronicwhite board, a midi instrument, a video capture device, a remote, awand, a stylus, a glove, a motion detector and a scanner.
 14. The methodof claim 1, wherein the intent object comprises a medical intent. 15.The method of claim 14, wherein the medical intent comprises at leastone of a diagnosis intent, an appointment intent, a surgery intent, aprescription intent, a dosage intent, and a therapy intent.
 16. Themethod of claim 1, wherein the intent object comprises an educationalintent.
 17. The method of claim 16, wherein the educational intentcomprises at least one of a teaching intent, a syllabus intent, acurriculum intent, a learning objective intent, a conditioning intent,an assignment intent, an exam intent, an evaluation intent, a mentoringintent, a notetaking intent, a certification intent, a disciplineintent, an instructional intent, a grading intent, and a lecturingintent.
 18. The method of claim 1, wherein the intent object comprises atravel intent.
 19. The method of claim 18, wherein the travel intentcomprises at least one of a booking intent, a commission intent, adestination intent, a place of origin intent, a tour intent, ahospitality intent, a check-in intent, a route intent, a cargo intent, aluggage intent, a sightseeing intent, and a traffic intent.
 20. Themethod of claim 1, wherein the intent object comprises a gaming intent.21. The method of claim 20, wherein the gaming intent comprises at leastone of an objective intent, a strategy intent, a bet intent, a wagerintent, an instructions intent, a rules intent, a score intent, asurvival intent, a demo intent, a role-playing intent, a stealth intent,and a tactical intent.
 22. The method of claim 1, wherein the intentobject comprises a shopping intent.
 23. The method of claim 22, whereinthe shopping intent comprises at least one of a purchase intent, aselling intent, a delivery intent, a spending intent, a budget intent, abarter intent, a trading intent, a return intent, an exchange intent, abargaining intent, a discount intent, a sale intent, a clearance intent,a manufacturing intent, a retail intent, an inventory intent, an auctionintent, a commission intent, a sales objective intent, a storage intent,a display intent, a social intent, a gift intent, a credit intent, and atransaction intent.
 24. The method of claim 1, wherein the intent objectcomprises a health intent.
 25. The method of claim 24, wherein thehealth intent comprises at least one of a fitness intent, a diet intent,a strength intent, a cardiovascular intent, an exercise intent, arunning intent, a swimming intent, a stretching intent, a weight-lossintent, a weight-gain intent, a muscle growth intent, a bodybuildingintent, an agility intent, a quickness intent, a speed intent, anutrition intent, a fat-loss intent, a hygiene intent, a cosmeticintent, an endurance intent, a blood pressure intent, an energy intent,a flexibility intent, a performance intent, a recovery intent, arelaxation intent, a therapeutic intent, a toning intent, a trainingintent, a stretching intent, a skills intent, a warm up intent and aworkout intent.
 26. The method of claim 1, wherein the intent objectcomprises an entertainment intent.
 27. The method of claim 26, whereinthe entertainment intent comprises at least one of an entertainmentactivity intent, a hobby intent, a holiday intent, a weekend intent, ananticipation intent, and a nightlife intent.
 28. A system forcontrolling an electronic device to learn intents of a user and controloutput actions based on intents, the system comprising: an intentdatabase coupled with the electronic device and configured to storeintent objects according to interaction attributes; and an intentmanagement engine coupled with the electronic device and the intentdatabase and configured to: obtain an environmental interactionrepresentation related to an environment of the electronic device,including obtaining data from two or more of the following sensors; acamera, a microphone, a thermometer, a global positioning system (GPS)sensor, a mechanical sensor, a chemical sensor, a biometric sensor, ahall effect sensor, an accelerometer, a pressure sensor, a compass, amagnetometer, a gas sensor, a speed sensor, a breathalyzer, anelectrochemical sensor, a touch display, an optical sensor, a proximitysensor, a vibration sensor, a piezoelectric sensor, a capacitive sensor,a resistive sensor, a current sensor, a magnetometer, a voltage sensor,a liquid sensor, and a weight sensor, and forming the environmentalinteraction representation based on the obtained data; deriveinteraction attributes within an interaction space as function of theenvironmental interaction representation; modify at least one intentobject from the intent database based on the interaction attributes,wherein the at least one intent object comprises a life time; output, bythe electronic device, a request for confirmation by the user of a userstate of mind corresponding to the modified intent object; receive inputfrom the user indicating whether the user state of mind is confirmed;use the user input to map a correlation between interaction attributesand the modified intent object; and configure an output device to adjustan output device action according to the at least one intent object. 29.The system of claim 28, wherein the intent management engine isconfigured to do at least one of instantiating, removing, deleting,activating, deactivating, classifying, archiving, exporting, forwarding,importing, receiving, tagging, duplicating, selecting and addinginformation to at least one intent object.
 30. The system of claim 28,wherein the intent management engine is configured to adjust theexpiration time of an intent object.
 31. The system of claim 28, whereinthe intent management engine is configured to adjust a relevancyattribute of an intent object with respect to the environmentalinteraction representation.
 32. The system of claim 31, wherein therelevancy attribute is multi-valued.
 33. The system of claim 32, whereinthe relevancy attribute comprises multiple dimensions.
 34. The system ofclaim 28, wherein the life time comprises a duration.
 35. The system ofclaim 28, wherein the at least one intent object comprises at least oneof a proposed future intent object, a past intent object, a currentintent object, a suggested intent object, and a user selected intentobject.
 36. The system of claim 28, wherein the at least one intentobject comprises at least one of a user attribute, a demographicattribute, a goal attribute, a privacy attribute, a priority attribute,a and a location attribute.
 37. The system of claim 28, wherein the stepof obtaining an environmental interaction representation includesobtaining data from a sensor.
 38. The system of claim 37, wherein thesensor comprises at least one of a camera, a microphone, a thermometer,a global positioning system (GPS) sensor, a mechanical sensor, achemical sensor, a biometric sensor, a hall effect sensor, anaccelerometer, a pressure sensor, a compass, a magnetometer, a gassensor, a speed sensor, a breathalyzer, an electrochemical sensor, atouch display, an optical sensor, a proximity sensor, a vibrationsensor, a piezoelectric sensor, a capacitive sensor, a resistive sensor,a current sensor, a magnetometer, a voltage sensor, a liquid sensor, anda weight sensor.
 39. The system of claim 28, wherein the interfacecomprises at least one of a touch screen, a keyboard, a controller, ajoystick, a track ball, a mouse, a light pen, a graphic tablet, abarcode reader, a gamepad, a paddle, an electronic white board, a midiinstrument, a video capture device, a remote, a wand, a stylus, a glove,a motion detector and a scanner.